[The Nation recently asked five U.S. analysts for their views on the defeat of constitutional reforms championed by
President Hugo Chávez. In the article below, one of the contributors, assistant professor of sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, Sujatha Fernandes, argues that the referendum defeat provides an opportunity to reorient the course of the revolution away from
determining how to keep Chávez in power indefinitely and proposing
reforms from above, and toward promoting alternative and local sources
of leadership and facilitating a plural public debate about the future
of socialism.]

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez gestures in this Dec. 3, 2007, file
photo, during the press conference in Caracas where he acknowledged his
defeat in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election
indefinitely and impose a socialist system. (AP Photo/Fernando
Llano/FILE)